The 1970s icon Dave Grohl called “the queen bitch of rock and roll”
As an artist who rose to prominence in the late 1980s and early ’90s, Dave Grohl surfed on one of the last big waves of rock music. Although rock music is still prevalent, many music fans regard Nirvana as one of the last bands of rock’s reign of cultural momentum through the late 20th century. Though Grohl is a rock legend in his own right, he is still dumbfounded when he rubs shoulders with his childhood heroes of the 1960s and ’70s.
As a child of the 1960s, Grohl grew up in a household stacked with Beatles records, and when he picked up the drums, he would play along to Ringo Starr’s beats until his “hands literally bled”. Naturally, when Grohl bumped into Paul McCartney for the first time at the Royal Albert Hall during the ‘Concert For George’, he had a major pinch-me moment. Since then, Grohl and McCartney have maintained a strong bond, sharing many memorable moments together in the years that followed.
Subsequently, McCartney introduced Grohl to his hard rock heroes AC/DC during a meal out, and he even had the chance to meet Prince, with whom he jammed to Led Zeppelin’s ‘Whole Lotta Love’. We know about these famous liaisons because Grohl is perhaps one of the most talkative rock stars around and, as the interviewer’s dream, is never short of an anecdote and all the right words to frame them.
It’s hard to say which heroic encounter Grohl is most proud of. Paul McCartney might take the lead as one of The Beatles, but someone like Bob Mould, the frontman of Hüsker Dü, might win if we focus on heroes from Grohl’s musical niche. Given Grohl’s surprising fandom of pop acts like ABBA and Prince, it is no surprise that he’s a big fan of Elton John. And you can bet your bottom dollar he’s got a yarn to spin about the ‘Rocket Man’ singer.
Speaking to the Sunday Times in 2021, Grohl remembered the first time he met Elton John. He was pushing his daughter, Violet, in a stroller down a busy London shopping street with his wife and close friend, Dave Koz, when he noticed Elton sticking out like a sore thumb in his glamorous garb. “Elton John walked out of a boutique directly in front of us and jumped in a waiting car,” Grohl recalled. “We all stopped and asked each other, ‘Holy shit! Did you just see that?!’ It was Elton Fucking John. And he was sitting in a parked car only feet from where we were standing, starstruck.”
At the time, Grohl’s days drumming for Nirvana were over a decade behind him, and he had established a solid career as the frontman of Foo Fighters. Still, Grohl felt Elton wouldn’t know him from Adam. Grohl’s friend nudged him and told him to go and say hello to Elton. “I laughed and said: ‘I don’t fucking know Elton John! And he sure as fuck doesn’t know who I am!'” he continued.
Grohl was clearly happy to let the moment pass under the conviction that Elton would wonder who this bearded American was upon approach. The car left and made it 20 metres up the road before it suddenly stopped, and out came Elton. “He approached me with that big toothy grin and said, ‘Hello, Dave, nice to meet you,'” Grohl remembered. “My smile almost fell off my face. It was so wide. I introduced him to Jordyn and Dave, and he leant down and gave Violet a kiss before running back and speeding away.”
Grohl recalled the grace with which Elton glided down the road and his sapphire earrings, which perfectly matched his shoes. After that chance encounter, Grohl managed to swing a studio session with Elton while working on the Queens of the Stone Age album ...Like Clockwork with Josh Homme. The album also featured collaborations with Trent Reznor, Jake Shears, Alex Turner, James Lavelle, and Brody Dalle.
Grohl remembered being under a lot of pressure while working on …Like Clockwork. Homme and his band like to record the whole band live to tape, meaning “you had to have your shit together and get it right.” They invited Elton in to record backing vocals and piano parts on ‘Fairweather Friends’ and became additionally anxious to get the take right so as not to use up too much of the Rocket Man’s time.
Elton arrived directly from a session with Engelbert Humperdinck and, as he entered the room, said, “OK, boys, have you got a ballad for me?” Grohl and the rest of the band laughed and had Elton listen to the unconventional rock demo they had prepared. “For anyone to just stroll in and learn such a complicated song straight away was a huge ask,” Grohl said, “but Elton sat at the piano and worked on it until he got it right, take after take, ever the perfectionist, proving why he is the queen bitch of rock and roll.”
When Grohl calls Elton the “queen bitch,” it is about the furthest thing from the insult it might seem. David Bowie popularised the term in his song of the same name in 1971, which he allegedly wrote about Lou Reed, whom he admired greatly for his work with The Velvet Underground. Tina Turner may be the ‘Queen of Rock’ n’ Roll’, but for Grohl, there’s only one Queen Bitch.
